Location: Wilgeheuwel, Roodepoort · System: Adjustable Louvre — bronze
The brief
A face-brick house with a paved side courtyard and a built-in braai against the boundary wall. An uncovered braai is too hot to stand at in summer and unusable in the rain.
It wanted a warmer finish than charcoal against the face brick, and it needed to be usable in a Highveld thunderstorm.
What we built
A bronze adjustable louvre roof spanning from the house wall across to the boundary wall, so the courtyard is covered without posts landing in the walkway. The blade line runs the length of the space and adjusts from fully open to closed.
Over a working braai the adjustability earns its place immediately: open the blades and smoke and heat go straight up; close them and the whole courtyard is dry.
More on the specification under Louvre Awnings, and more jobs like it across Roodepoort & the West Rand.
Covering a braai without trapping it
A solid roof over a built-in braai has one obvious problem and one that only shows up later. The obvious one is smoke. The later one is heat: a fixed ceiling over an open fire takes a beating, and the space underneath stays warm long after you want it to.
An adjustable roof sidesteps both. Blades open while the fire is going, closed when the weather needs it. The same structure serves two states that a fixed roof has to compromise between.
The specification behind it
- Adjustable aluminium louvre roof — bronze frame and posts, white blades
- Spans house wall to boundary wall — no posts in the walkway
- Manual gearbox or automated operation
- All-round gutter with downpipe outlets set on site
- 15-year guarantee on aluminium, 10-year on Chromadek®
Where bronze beats charcoal
Charcoal is the default for a reason: it suits plaster, grey glazing and modern builds. Against warm face brick it can read as a hard black stripe.
Bronze carries the brick tones instead of fighting them, and on an older Roodepoort house it usually looks like it was always meant to be there — which is the whole aim.
If you’re considering the same
If your braai is already built, photograph it with the surrounding walls in frame when you request a quote. Where the flue sits, and how close the boundary wall is, decides whether the roof can span clear or needs a post.
This is home ground — see Roodepoort and the West Rand.
